A solitary goal from Rodrygo and little more than that were enough for Brazil to end its worst streak in the history of the World Cup qualification of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol). But the 1-0 victory against Ecuador at the Couto Pereira stadium in Curitiba was not enough to mitigate the annoyance of the fans.who dismissed the team with whistles. Given this, the coach Dorival Junior He asked for calm and patience, and stressed that the important thing was to achieve this victory, beyond forms.
“People have to be aware of the situation we are in. We are in a moment of rebuilding the team. Today it was important that we win, no matter how we achieved it”the DT was sincere. And he added: “We cannot forget what was happening with our team. We must remember that we came from four negative results in the qualifying rounds”.
Indeed, the Yellow greenwho had started this date in sixth place in the table, had not won a qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup since their 1-0 victory against Peru in Lima on September 12, 2023. After that, they had tied 1 to 1 at home against Venezuela and had fallen 2 to 0 against Uruguay in Montevideo, 2 to 1 against Colombia in Barranquilla and 1 to 0 against Argentina in the Maracaná. Never had a Brazilian team gone through a negative series like that.
In order to rescue positive aspects, Dorival Júnior highlighted the work of the Ecuadorian team, now led by Sebastián Snipeand stressed that, despite this, the visit had never put the triumph of his team at risk: “The opponent was very competent, but at no time were we in danger. We were not attacked, with the exception of a fortuitous play in the last minutes of the first half. Ecuador had control of the ball at times, but did not create any clear opportunities”.
“I think we are on the right path”the coach was excited after his first game in charge of the team in this qualifying stage. And he promised that “in two years” he will build “an aggressive team.” That period seems too long in a sport not very fond of long processes. For this reason, the veteran coach asked for some credit to sustain this march.
“This is a process of change and we have to respect the stages. Adjustments do not happen overnight. Sometimes these processes are slow, they require time and patience, which we do not have in our country. I ask the fans for calm. We have very high level players who play in the biggest clubs in European and Brazilian football. “We are in the process of recovery,” he stated.
In a similar tone to that of his coach, Rodrygo highlighted the victory, which allowed the Brazilian team to increase its harvest (total 10 points) and jump to fourth place, behind Argentina (18), Uruguay (14) and Colombia (13). . “We needed the victory. That was our goal, regardless of playing well or badly. We knew it would be difficult, but from now on it can be better”the Real Madrid player hoped.
The forward marked as a negative point that Ecuador had dominated “for a long time the party” and emphasized that “That shouldn’t have happened, especially at home.”. In any case, he also explained the conditions that would have affected the team’s performance: “The start of the season is always very difficult, especially for those who come from Europe. The trip is long, there are not many days to train and the group is new.”
Midfielder André also chose to highlight that Brazil had done “a consistent and fairly balanced match”although he pointed out that the team had lacked “a little determination to finish the game and stay calm”.
“We are going through a process and beginning to understand what the new coach wants,” alleged the Fluminense player. And he added: “We were in sixth position, which made us quite uncomfortable, that’s why we came in under pressure. The place that Brazil deserves is at the top. That’s why we have to win the next game to continue moving up.”